Month: September 2017

I’m tired of finding animal products in everyday things we use and eat and being lied to about their names. Things growing up as kids if we even read we wouldn’t know anything about and even as grown adults we may never know. Drug companies and fast food chains. I couldn’t find one pain killer in Denver that was animal product free and even a store pharmacy couldn’t put together a simple ingredient pain killer. McDonald’s fries – made with cows, Sobe LifeWater made with insects. Most cheap sugars are filtered through bone char, so this includes almost every soda and homemade desert from the naive buyer. A lot of paper, the stuff you lick on an envelope, soaps and every single plastic bag you take from the grocery store may have some animal fat in it. Cigarettes, some beer, receipts. Most of the time it is not even necessary, just cheap or people are too lazy to change. Even products stamped Vegan on them that are produced or packaged in a facility that share equipment with egg or dairy products shouldn’t be allowed to put Vegan there. For example, those cookies in 711 by Lenny & Larry. The Lemon Poppy one used to be the only one that didn’t have this disclaimer, but recently they changed it. On the final note – computers. I’m probably typing this on a machine made with animal products built into it. To be honest why not just put an animal product stamp on everything – right on the front.

More on this topic found in this updated post.

I just passed about a year and a month as a vegan. Over the year I became homeless and phased out all leather and animal products I previously owned. I slowly got stricter with my self-education by ditching all animal products in medicine, soap, blankets, clothing, toothpaste etc. It’s difficult to say the least moving around and running out of money. Then rushing to get food stamps in time as most shelters serve many meat products and then desperately seeking work to meet the bills of education. Then, if you are really challenged, cooking your own cheap rations in the park or pines to cut down on costs further and hand washing clothes to dry by the river. Thanks to all who pushed me to the next level cause even though it was a pain a lot of the time, I know I’m prepared for a lot more than a year ago as a struggling artist. Now my artist self is more of a mixer/writer than an instrumentalist/vocalist/songwriter, but it has never been easy in one way or the other.

You can donate to Ckwal to help with basic costs, some tracks and to get Ckwal more official at the bottom of the page. This is a highly independent cause and if you are ever in the area or support travel you can choose to go on a Ckwal experience which was the idea to have on Kickstarter, but I’d rather raise funds and do that kind of thing on a more private level. Thanks for listening and please support the individual artists and labels to continue making good music. Sometimes it seems like a lot of big artists are making tons of money, but a lot of them can’t ever go back to normal jobs or lower standards of living.

*Update 9/28* I reposted this after writing my ‘appalled’ post. I’m not trying to convert anyone, just trying to tell the truth as most musicians do in some form or another. After yesterday and many times in the past year and two months of going Vegan to detox I felt like I really wasn’t Vegan at all and it feels like failure.